The INX Media case shall forever haunt Congress veteran P Chidambaram. On the night of August 21, he was arrested by the CBI after the cinematic press conference that he had held.

 

He was enjoying the interim protection from way back in March 2018. Alas! It all came to an end when the Delhi high court dismissed his anticipatory bail in the INX Media corruption case, which forced the CBI and the ED to arrest him. Abhinav Khare deep dives into the INX Media case, which involves the grant of clearance for Rs 300 crore of foreign investment by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the finance minister.

In 2008, when the I-T department started their investigation against the Mukherjeas, they rushed to Chidambaram for help. The main accused, who is now the approver, Indrani Mukherjea revealed the she and her husband Peter had approached Chidambaram to regularise these violations with the help of Karti Chidambaram, his son.

In October 2018, Rs 54 crore worth of assets belonging to Karti Chidambaram were attached from India, Spain and the UK by the ED linked to the INX money laundering case, but Chidambaram called this a political vendetta by the BJP.

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In August 2019, the Delhi high court rejected his anticipatory bail and called him ‘kingpin' and 'key conspirator’. He even approached the Supreme Court for interim protection and urgent relief, but was denied. Following this, he was nowhere to be found. Thus, the CBI and the ED were forced to issue lookout notices for him.

On August 21, he read out his statement from the Congress headquarters where he denied all the charges, which were levied against him. Just after the press briefing, the CBI hopped over the boundary of his residence and arrested him. Today, his CBI custody got extended till September 5 and he narrowly missed going to Tihar, as of now!

About Abhinav Khare

Abhinav Khare is the CEO of AsiaNetNews Network and also the host of a daily show named Deep Dive with AK. AsiaNetNews is a leading media group of south India with highly valuable brands like AsiaNetNews, Suvarna News, Kannada Prabha, IndigoMusic, Indigo Radio, MyNation, NewsFast, IndigoXP Music lounges. 

He is a proud father of two beautiful daughters and resides in Bengaluru with his loving family and a lifetime collection of books and gadgets. An avid traveller, he has already pinged more than hundred cities from 5 major continents around the globe. 

A tech entrepreneur, who is passionate about policy, technology, economy and philosophy from ancient India. His favourite pastime is to research synergy between these facets of society. He earned his qualifications from the top 10 global universities; an MS Engineering from the ETH Zurich and an MBA Finance from the London Business School.